1. Field
This document relates to image processing, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for generating a compressed file, a camera module associated therewith, and a terminal including the compressed file generating apparatus and the camera module.
2. Related Art
Recently, digital images have been widely applied to various fields with the rapid development of digital signal processing technology. Furthermore, the necessity for digital image processing technology increases with the development of digital communication and the spread of multimedia application fields.
Particularly, image signals require to process a large quantity of data, and thus an image compression technique is required to efficiently transmit or store digital images.
Typical examples of the image compression technique include JPEG (Joint Photographing Experts Group) which is a standard of a still image compression technique and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) which is a standard of a moving picture compression technique.
It is known that JPEG is suitable for electronic apparatuses which require high-picture quality and high-resolution display because JPEG has high data compression efficiency and can represent a variety of colors. Furthermore, JPEG can control the quality and a file size of an image when the image is generated.
Based on the aforementioned advantages of JPEG, most of electronic apparatuses which have come to the market recently employ JPEG as a still image compression method. However, a method capable of compressing a large quantity of image data at a high speed with high efficiency is needed as images having higher picture quality and higher resolution are required.
Moreover, a camera module having high picture quality and high resolution of more than 1,000,000 pixels is generally mounted in a variety of electronic apparatuses as well as photographing electronic devices (for instance, a digital still camera, etc.). In particular, in a mobile terminal such as a notebook computer and a cellular phone, a function of photographing and reproducing pictures or moving pictures is one of additional functions most widely used by users, and thus the camera module is considered as an essential component that must be mounted in the mobile terminal.
However, mobile devices such as cellular phones and small electronic devices have data processing capability or/and efficiency and processing speeds inferior to those of photographing electronic apparatuses, large-sized electronic apparatuses or fixed terminals. In spite of this, conventional mobile devices and small electronic devices employ an image compression method applied to the photographing electronic apparatuses, large-sized electronic apparatuses or the fixed terminals (that is, an image compression process based on a host system in an apparatus, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 2). This decreases compression efficiency and speed and increases data processing load.
Accordingly, a new image compression method and technique specialized for mobile devices or small electronic devices and applied to the mobile devices or the small electronic devices are urgently required.